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New Bill Would Empower Americans to Sue China for Coronavirus Outbreak; China’s Wuhan Raises Death Toll by 50%

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By PJ Media. Americans will be able to take the Chinese Communist Party to court for its lies and omissions about the Chinese Wuhan coronavirus from the Middle Kingdom under a new bill proposed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas). The bill would strike down immunity for foreign countries like China in the specific case of the coronavirus, enabling Americans to sue for damages in U.S. courts.

“By silencing doctors and journalists who tried to warn the world about the coronavirus, the Chinese Communist Party allowed the virus to spread quickly around the globe,” Cotton said in a statement on the legislation. “Their decision to cover up the virus led to thousands of needless deaths and untold economic harm. It’s only appropriate that we hold the Chinese government accountable for the damage it has caused.”

“We need to hold the Chinese government accountable for their malicious lies and coverup that allowed the coronavirus to spread across the world,” Crenshaw declared. “The communist regime expelled journalists, silenced whistleblowers, and withheld vital information that delayed the global response to the pandemic. Simply put: their actions cost American lives and livelihoods. This bill will help ensure China’s actions are not without consequences.”

The Senate bill, which is yet to be filed, is entitled, the “‘Holding the Chinese Communist Party Accountable for Infecting Americans Act of 2020.” The legislation has been modeled after the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, for which 97 senators voted in 2016. (Read more from “New Bill Would Empower Americans to Sue China for Coronavirus Outbreak” HERE)

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China’s Wuhan Raises Coronavirus Death Toll by 50% After City Revises Figures

By CNBC. Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China, has revised upwards the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the city after “a city-wide investigation,” state media reported.

The Wuhan government said total confirmed infections in the city have been revised to 50,333 as of Thursday, an increase of 325 cases, while the cumulative number of deaths is now 3,869 — 1,290 more than its previous count, according to CNBC’s translation of a Chinese language report by Xinhua News Agency.

Following the revision by Wuhan, China’s National Health Commission said Friday that the death toll in mainland China has been revised from 3,342 to 4,632. Meanwhile, total confirmed cases have been revised from 82,367 to 82,692, the NHC said.

Xinhua posted a notice from the Wuhan government, which listed four explanations for the discrepancy in the city’s data. (Read more from “China’s Wuhan Raises Coronavirus Death Toll by 50% After City Revises Figures” HERE)

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New Evidence that Coronavirus Started in Wuhan Lab; U.S. Government Aggressively Investigating

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By Col. Lawrence Sellin (Ret.). Identifying the unique characteristics of CoVid-19, understanding the techniques that have been used to study coronaviruses and analyzing the scientific publications going back two decades or more will all be key in determining the origin of the Wuhan pandemic.

Since the 2002-2003 SARS coronavirus pandemic (SARS-CoV), which also originated in China, it has been known that human infectivity depends on the coronavirus’ capability to bind to a human lung cell receptor, in this case, angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE2), a property that CoVid-19 also possesses.

In 2008, scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, led by Zhengli Shi, demonstrated the importance of the human ACE2 binding capability by using bioengineering techniques to “splice” the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV onto a non-human-infecting bat coronavirus, thereby creating the capability for the “new” virus to infect humans.

By 2013, a growing number of horseshoe bat coronaviruses, capable of binding to the human ACE2 receptor, were isolated by the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the direction of Zhengli Shi.

Given the possibility that CoVid-19 could be a naturally-occurring mutation within the bat population that “jumped” to humans, scientists world-wide have attempted to match CoVid-19’s genetic and amino acid sequence with coronaviruses found in nature.

Up until now, they have been unable to do so, but the nearest naturally-occurring relatives or “progenitors” of CoVid-19 have been suggested.

In the March 2020 scientific article “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2,” which has been widely cited both in the scientific literature and the mainstream media as evidence for CoVid-19 being a naturally-occurring coronavirus, the authors identified a number of close relatives to CoVid-19 and, from that, quickly concluded that CoVid-19 must occur in nature.

Yet, the authors cannot explain the presence of a unique amino acid sequence composed of Arginine-Arginine-Alanine-Arginine (RRAR), called a furin (polybasic) cleavage site that does not exist in any of the identified close relatives.

The minimum sequence for a furin cleavage site is R-X-X-R, where Arginine (R) occurs in the first and last positions and the middle two positions can be any amino acid, but activity of the furin cleavage site can be significantly enhanced with a basic amino acid like Arginine in the second position, as occurs in CoVid-19.

Furin cleavage sites have been found to be important factors contributing to the pathogenicity in human (MERS) coronavirus infections and in animals, like the bird infectious bronchitis Beaudette coronavirus strain, which has a furin cleavage site sequence of Arginine-Arginine-Lysine-Arginine, closely matching that of CoVid-19.

It is important to note that furin cleavage sites have been “introduced” into coronaviruses using widely-known genetic engineering techniques since, at least, 2006 in order to study the effect of cleavage to mediate cell-to-cell fusion and affect viral infectivity.

In the absence of conclusive evidence that CoVid-19 is naturally-occurring either within the bat population or as a Chinese laboratory isolate, it is postulated that CoVid-19 may have been manufactured as part of a research program and accidentally leaked from a high containment facility.

Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel, who previously worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and conducted basic and clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry. He is also a member of the Citizens Commission on National Security. His email address is [email protected].

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US Investigating “Man-made” in Wuhan Lab

By CNN. US intelligence and national security officials say the United States government is looking into the possibility that the novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory rather than a market, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter who caution it is premature to draw any conclusions.

The theory is one of multiple being pursued by investigators as they attempt to determine the origin of the coronavirus that has resulted in a pandemic and killed hundreds of thousands. The US does not believe the virus was associated with bioweapons research, and officials noted that the intelligence community is also exploring a range of other theories regarding the origination of the virus, as would typically be the case for high-profile incidents, according to an intelligence source. . .

An intelligence official familiar with the government analysis said a theory US intelligence officials are investigating is that the virus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and was accidentally released to the public. Other sources told CNN that US intelligence hasn’t been able to corroborate the theory but is trying to discern whether someone was infected in the lab through an accident or poor handling of materials and may have then infected others. (Read more from “U.S. Explores Possibility That Coronavirus Started in Wuhan Lab” HERE)

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Sources Believe Coronavirus Originated in Wuhan Lab as Part of China’s Efforts to Compete With U.S.

By Fox News. There is increasing confidence that COVID-19 likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory not as a bioweapon, but as part of China’s effort to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States, multiple sources who have been briefed on the details of early actions by China’s government and seen relevant materials tell Fox News.

This may be the “costliest government coverup of all time,” one of the sources said.

The sources believe the initial transmission of the virus was bat-to-human, and that “patient zero” worked at the laboratory, then went into the population in Wuhan.

The “increasing confidence” comes from classified and open-source documents and evidence, the sources said. Fox News has requested to see the evidence directly.

Asked by Fox News’ John Roberts about the reporting, President Trump remarked at Wednesday’s coronavirus press briefing, “More and more we’re hearing the story…we are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation.” (Read more from “Sources Believe Coronavirus Originated in Wuhan Lab as Part of China’s Efforts to Compete With U.S.” HERE)

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Navy on Chinese Carrier Deployment: ‘U.S. Pacific Fleet Remains Operationally Ready’

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The United States Navy’s 7th Fleet said it is “fully aware” and remains “operationally ready” in response to a recent Chinese deployment of a carrier strike group to waters around U.S. allies Japan and Taiwan.

“We are fully aware of the PLA deployment, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet remains operationally ready,” said Navy Lt. Jim Adams, a U.S. Pacific Fleet (PacFleet) spokesperson, in a statement to Breitbart News.

On Saturday, Beijing sent the Liaoning through the Miyako Strait, located south of Japan and north of Taiwan, for only the third time in its history, according to Chinese state media reports. On Sunday, the Liaoning headed south and sailed through the Taiwan Strait amid a period of heightened Chinese tensions with Taiwan.

China has claimed the deployment was part of an annual plan, but its timing appeared aimed at sending a message: that China was capable of deploying a carrier strike group while U.S. aircraft carriers have been sidelined with coronavirus. (Read more from “Navy on Chinese Carrier Deployment: ‘U.S. Pacific Fleet Remains Operationally Ready’” HERE)

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‘Black People Are Not Allowed’: Reports of Discrimination After Chinese City Orders Mandatory Quarantine for African Residents; McDonald’s in China Apologizes for Sign Banning Black People Amid Coronavirus

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By Forbes. After five Nigerians tested positive for COVID-19 in Guangzhou, China, the government ordered all residents of African descent to quarantine for 14 days, a move that led to businesses and landlords to issue evictions and bans that many in the African community said were based on discrimination.

The city of Guangzhou, which has just 463 cases of COVID-19, said that it had tallied 111 imported cases, leading to fears of a second-wave outbreak, according to the South China Morning Post; officials said 10 cases were linked to the business district known as “Little Africa,” including 5 cases linked to a single restaurant.

Following the outbreak, Guangzhou officials announced that all residents of African descent—about 4,500 people—must quarantine for 14 days “regardless of their previous circumstances or how long they have been in Guangzhou,” reports the South China Morning Post, adding that African residents’ homes will be monitored with tracking devices that will alert officials if they “open the door.”

The ban led to reports of African residents being evicted and banned from businesses; people have taken to social media to document evicted African residents sleeping on the street, interacting with police and Nigerian diplomats delivering food to their now-homeless compatriots, causing foreign ministers of Uganda, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria to speak out in protest. (Read more from “‘Black People Are Not Allowed’: Reports of Discrimination After Chinese City Orders Mandatory Quarantine for African Residents” HERE)

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McDonald’s in China Apologizes for Sign Banning Black People Amid Coronavirus

By New York Post. A McDonald’s restaurant in China has been temporarily closed after it tried to ban black people from entering over fears of the coronavirus, according to a report. . .

McDonald’s said that the store was quickly shuttered when it became aware of the disturbing notice and that the restaurant’s apparent ban on black people was “not representative” of the company’s “inclusive values.”

“Immediately upon learning of an unauthorized communication to our guests at a restaurant in Guangzhou, we immediately removed the communication and temporarily closed the restaurant,” a McDonald’s spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC. (Read more from “McDonald’s in China Apologizes for Sign Banning Black People Amid Coronavirus” HERE)

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REPORT: U.S. Military Investigations Suggest COVID-19 Probably Wasn’t Created in a Lab; China Sees Spike in New Cases

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By Newsweek. U.S. military investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic suggest the virus was probably not created in a lab, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley said on Tuesday.

Speculation that the deadly coronavirus, first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, escaped from a lab has been fueled by Beijing’s early attempts to coverup the outbreak and more recently by details from U.S. diplomatic cables. . .

“It should be no surprise to you that we’ve taken a keen interest in that, and we’ve had a lot of intelligence take a hard look at that,” he said. “And I would just say, at this point, it’s inconclusive. Although the weight of evidence seems to indicate ‘natural.’ But we don’t know for certain.” . . .

Milley’s careful choice of words is unlikely quell rumors on the internet, and questions in the media, that virus was created in a lab at Wuhan’s Institute of Virology. (Read more from “REPORT: U.S. Military Investigations Suggest COVID-19 Probably Wasn’t Created in a Lab” HERE)

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China Reports 169 New Coronavirus Cases — Highest in 5 Weeks

By NPR. China is reporting its highest number of new coronavirus cases in more than five weeks, saying most of them originated abroad.

Officials said Monday that mainland China had 169 new confirmed cases of infection, with 61 of them described as “asymptomatic” COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. The government said 98 of the cases were “imported” by people arriving from abroad. The total figure represents the highest number of new cases since March 6.

The increase has sparked concern about a second wave of infections in China, which was the original epicenter of the pandemic. The latest figures in China are just over 82,000, with 3,341 deaths, according to data released Monday by the National Health Commission. By comparison, the U.S. has the largest number of cases in the world — nearly 560,000 and more than 22,000 deaths — according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. (Read more from “China Reports 169 New Coronavirus Cases — Highest in 5 Weeks” HERE)

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China: Racism Against Africans ‘Isolated Incidents’ and ‘Misunderstandings’ (VIDEO)

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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its media organs lashed out Monday against African leaders for complaining about rampant racial discrimination against Africans living in Chinese cities, dismissing their complaints as a few “isolated incidents” and “misunderstandings.”

African ambassadors wrote a letter to the Chinese Foreign Ministry over the weekend to complain about “stigmatization and discrimination” against Africans living in China, especially in the city of Guangzhou.

“The Group of African Ambassadors in Beijing immediately demands the cessation of forceful testing, quarantine and other inhuman treatments meted out to Africans,” the letter said.

Several of the signatory countries summoned their Chinese ambassadors to confront them with documented complaints of discrimination from Africans living in China. These complaints included “being evicted from their apartments by their landlords, being tested for coronavirus several times without being given results, and being shunned and discriminated against in public,” as Al Jazeera summarized them on Sunday.

Other stories of discrimination included Africans denied service at Chinese restaurants and hotels, and even some students who said they were forced to live on the streets. One video clip circulating online purportedly depicts a written notice instructing Guangzhou restaurants not to admit African customers.

(Read more from “China: Racism Against Africans ‘Isolated Incidents’ and ‘Misunderstandings’” HERE)

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WATCH: Did Coronavirus REALLY Come From Bat Soup? Scientists in China Release Study Linking Origins to Wuhan Lab

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By The Blaze. During his latest Wednesday night special, Glenn Beck explained why a study released by two Chinese scientists indicates that it’s far more likely the coronavirus originated from the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and not from bat soup as the Chinese Communist Party has been telling their own citizens — and the rest of the world.

(Read more from “Did Coronavirus REALLY Come From Bat Soup? Scientists in China Release Study Linking Origins to Wuhan Lab” HERE)

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Wuhan Is Open and Infections Are Down, but China’s Coronavirus Numbers Can’t Be Trusted

By Yahoo News. China this week officially reopened Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected, claiming that new infections were in the single digits. Some have hailed the seeming success of China’s draconian lockdown as a model for other countries.

In recent days, however, everyone from the CIA to Chinese investigative journalists has accused Beijing of reporting inaccurate counts of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, pointing to patterns in other countries, to frequent unexplained changes in China’s accounting, and even to pallets of urns being delivered to funeral homes in Wuhan.

These concerns are not new, but neither are they an indication of some nefarious plot. Rather, they evince a degree and type of weakness that may surprise some critics abroad, who think the Chinese government effectively controls all aspects of life in the country with an iron fist. In fact, underreporting of bad news is not a simple product of autocratic leaders’ cruel strategy, but an artifact of China’s idiosyncratic authoritarianism that goes back decades, though it has resurfaced acutely over the past 15 years. (Read more from “Wuhan Is Open and Infections Are Down, but China’s Coronavirus Numbers Can’t Be Trusted” HERE)

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China Could Face Lawsuits Totaling Trillions Over Handling of Coronavirus

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China could face trillions of dollars in international lawsuits for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in Wuhan as early as November, according to a London-based think-tank.

Nations who are part of the G7 and other governments could sue the ruling Chinese Communist Party for damages to their economies and national infrastructure after the country breached the International Health Regulations, a legally binding international treaty to which China is a signatory, the Henry Jackson Society said in a report published this week.

“These breaches allowed the outbreak to rapidly spread outside Wuhan, its place of origin,” the report said, citing the failure to disclose evidence of human to-human transmission for as long as three weeks after first becoming aware of it.

Beijing also provided the World Health Organization (WHO) with “erroneous information” about the number of infections in early January, while failing to ban the trade in “dangerous viral host species for human consumption,” it said. . .

“Potential damages liable against China at the time of writing could run to … U.S.$4 trillion from just the G7 nations,” the report said, citing 10 potential legal avenues for action against China. (Read more from “China Could Face Lawsuits Totaling Trillions Over Handling of Coronavirus” HERE)

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FCC Asked to Revoke China Telecom’s Authorization to Operate in U.S.

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The Federal Communications Commission has been asked by a coalition of executive branch agencies to “revoke and terminate” China Telecom Corp.’s permissions to provide international telecommunications services to and from the United States.

The company, a U.S. subsidiary of a state-owned company in the People’s Republic of China, has been under review of the Department of Justice.

It based the recommendation on changes that have developed since the permission previously was granted in 2007, including the company’s failure to follow a previous agreement with the federal department, according to officials with the Department of Justice.

“Today, more than ever, the life of the nation and its people runs on our telecommunications networks,” said John C. Demers, assistant attorney general for National Security. “The security of our government and professional communications, as well as of our most private data, depends on our use of trusted partners from nations that share our values and our aspirations for humanity. Today’s action is but our next step in ensuring the integrity of America’s telecommunications systems.”

The executive branch agencies cited “substantial and unacceptable national security and law enforcement risks associated with China Telecom’s operations.” (Read more from “FCC Asked to Revoke China Telecom’s Authorization to Operate in U.S.” HERE)

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WATCH: Trump Coronavirus Campaign Ad Features Joe Biden Cheerleading for China; Joe Biden Is China’s Choice for President

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By Breitbart. President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign released a new ad on Thursday attacking former Vice President Joe Biden for his past support of China.

“During America’s crisis, Biden protected China’s feelings,” the text of the ad reads.

The ad features Biden’s past positive comments about China, as more Americans suffer from the coronavirus that first came from China.

(Read more from “Trump Coronavirus Campaign Ad Features Joe Biden Cheerleading for China” HERE)

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Joe Biden Is China’s Choice for President

By National Review. The Democratic Party has always been weak on national security when it comes to China. But some credit is due when it comes to China’s atrocious human-rights record and its theft of American jobs. For a generation, prominent Democrats loudly criticized Beijing on these fronts, well before Donald Trump helped form a new national consensus on China. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have been longstanding China trade hawks, for instance. Even a socialist like Bernie Sanders has been a reliable critic.

And Joe Biden? Well, he’s on China’s side — not yours.

Despite the occasional box-checking, wishy-washy comment slapping Beijing on the wrist for the worst of its abuses, the reality is that the former vice president’s support of the People’s Republic of China is deep and longstanding. In the critical fight over whether to grant most-favored-nation trade status and World Trade Organization membership to China in the 1990s — a fight in which, again, many of his party’s leaders in Congress were on the right side — Biden carefully shepherded China through the process from his powerful perch as the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wherever a brake might have been applied — by placing human-rights or labor conditions on most-favored-nation status, for example — Biden voted the measures down and lobbied other senators for Beijing. Unfortunately, China and Biden got their way, and American workers are still suffering from it.

It should have been a warning on more fronts than one when President Obama recruited Biden to his ticket to buttress his credibility on foreign policy; unsurprisingly, there was no about-face on Beijing. As the Chinese Communist Party gained strength and Xi Jinping seized absolute power, Biden continued to push for closer ties and even more trade. As for American workers? In February 2012, in friendly remarks with Xi standing next to him, Biden praised Beijing as a “new partner” that would help to meet “global challenges,” and said Americans “welcome this competition. . . . It pushes our companies to develop better products and services and our government to craft better policies.” Millions of American jobs were disappearing as he spoke, and the militarization of the South China Sea was just around the corner. (Read more from “Joe Biden Is China’s Choice for President” HERE)

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